


Turn Out the Light

by scribblemyname



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Aftermath, Established Relationship, Multi, Nightmares, Parental Discussions, Post-Avengers (2012)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-01
Updated: 2016-05-01
Packaged: 2018-06-05 18:50:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6716914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scribblemyname/pseuds/scribblemyname
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Laura. Home. It should have been comforting.</p><p>But all he could rasp out was, "He knows about the kids. He knows I have kids."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Turn Out the Light

**Author's Note:**

  * For [crescent_gaia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/crescent_gaia/gifts).



Clint woke in a tangle of limbs and blanket and nightmare, Loki's laughter still ringing around him in the midst of glowing blue light. He thrashed for a moment, felt a warm body and his name held soft in a woman's voice, and forced himself to hold still. His breath was harsh and loud in the quiet left behind.

"Natasha?"

He reached for her and the scent was all different, vaguely floral and warm, soft flesh instead of gunpowder scent and lean muscle. "Laura," he breathed against her as she murmured into his hair and wrapped her arms around him.

"Hey, it's okay. It's me." Laura. Home. It should have been comforting.

But all he could rasp out was, "He knows about the kids. He knows I have kids."

Panic clutched at his throat and tore at his insides.

"Hey." Natasha's voice came out of the dark behind him, groggy but surprisingly sharp. "Clint. You're safe. The kids are safe." He felt the weight of the bed shift behind him—slowly, a conscious move on Natasha's part no doubt—then her arms settled around his and Laura's and her sharp chin dug into his shoulder in a way that hurt and maybe should have bothered him. "Loki didn't mention them," she added, quiet in his ear.

Laura's breath puffed out near his collar bone, and he thought he could feel her tense.

Clint almost wanted to pull out of their suffocating grip, the way they surrounded him, but another part of him wanted to feel them forever this claustrophobically, so close he couldn't doubt they were here. He pressed his face into Laura's hair, felt her fingers tighten on the hem of his shirt and dig into his skin a little.

"He didn't have a reason," he finally decided. "He wanted you."

Natasha was there, in the moment, accessible and dangerous—a potential asset to be leveraged. The kids… They were something to be used later, and for all Clint liked Thor and thought him a nice guy, capable in a fight, and doubtless capable at ruling whatever realm he belonged to—when it came down to it, Clint wasn't the kind of person to trust a foreign government to keep his enemy away from his family.

"Clint." Natasha's tone held that warning note it got when he was breathing too fast or worrying too much or going into shock. It probably said something unpleasant about the two of them that he'd had enough traumatic injuries to know exactly what that sound meant.

But he shook his head, unable to let go of the thought. "He knows about the _kids."_

The silence stretched for a moment, and he could almost feel the frown she was pressing against his own skin. He knew her, knew she was unhappy that he was worrying Laura, and knew she was trying to find some way to reassure them both.

At last she sighed and sat up in the bed. Clint reached blindly back for her at the sudden loss of warmth and comfort, but she gently caught his hand in hers and stayed put.

"You two need to move to the farm."

Laura squirmed upward from beneath him to lean semi-upright against the headboard. "Doesn't he know about that too?" she demanded. The worry sounded a little bitter in Clint's ears.

But Natasha was right, he thought slowly. "It didn't come up."

"It wouldn't have," Natasha said. "It was Fury's backup plan."

"Did Loki get everything?" Laura asked.

The tension in her voice was too much and Clint tugged his hand out of Natasha's to flail for the lamp. Being in the middle of the bed between two women, he couldn't quite reach it, but Natasha got the gist and flicked the switch on.

He glanced his thanks at Natasha but immediately turned to Laura. "Everything I told him."

"That's what he said to me," Natasha added. "He said Barton told him everything."

The three of them considered that for a moment in tense silence, but at last Laura nodded, grim acceptance writ across her face. The secrets he hadn't thought to ask about were still safe. "So I become a military wife who runs a farm."

Clint frowned.

She held up a hand to forestall his protests. "I used to live on a farm. I've hired workers. I don't want to hear a thing about putting too much on me. You two have to keep us safe. That's your part."

And Laura's had always been to give them something to keep safe.

Natasha wrapped her arms around her knees and drew them up under her chin. "Are we agreed?"

Clint could see the gesture was hiding more emotion than Natasha actually wanted to show. This small house had treated them well, for all that Laura had mentioned twenty plus times in the last few months— _"I do not nag," she'd sniffed over his protests_ —that two kids were too many for a house this size. But it was the one that Natasha had settled into when she first walked into their lives, the house where she'd become a part of them in a way that had more to do with family than friendship, and the house where they'd had Cooper and Lila.

Laura reached across his body and rubbed Natasha's hand until she could get a grip and hold it. Her other hand found Clint's. She looked at him, questioning.

It was Clint's fear that had woken them in the middle of the night, his nightmares borne out of his mind bound beneath another's will.

He took a long, deep breath and held it for just a minute, long enough to feel them both looking at him and waiting to see what he would say. Clint trusted Fury, trusted this house and the backup plans he'd asked for and received when he signed up. It was a little late to stop trusting him now. He nodded curtly.

"Yeah. We're agreed."

Laura looked at him steadily for another long moment, then leaned down and kissed him softly. "Okay." She started to slide down again, but had to tug on Natasha's hand to get her to uncurl and give her room.

Natasha sighed and sank in behind Clint, and then it was the three of them snuggled together in bed again, warm and comfortable.

"He'll never get the children," Natasha said, voice muffled by Clint's shoulder. But the tone she said it in… Both of them knew she meant it.

"Yeah," Clint said softly, finally. "I know."

Laura smiled and gestured for Natasha to turn out the light so they could sleep.


End file.
